On Thursday evening, I went to an InterNations get-together. I enjoy these for a number of reasons. One – it’s an excuse to drink on a school night; two – I get to visit a new bar or café that I’ve usually been meaning to check out but never got around to doing it; three – I get to talk to cool people from all over the world. This time round it was Amplua in Old Town and, over the course of the evening, I spoke to people from Denmark, Austria, England, Norway, Poland, Italy, America, Iceland, Sweden, Slovakia, France and Hungary. And Latvia. (As it’s mainly an expat affair, I can only assume that they were there to find husbands…)

Lady in Red

The surprise of the evening was that there were FIVE Irish people in attendance – including my good self. FIVE. This is unheard of as the Irish are usually greatly outnumbered by other nationalities. Two of them I already knew so I set about finding the strays that I hadn’t encountered before.

One of them was absolutely charming. The other one – well. Judge for yourself.

Me: So, what are you doing in Latvia?

Ugh: Well, for the first five years, I was doing a Russian. Then I was doing a Latvian for a few years. Now I’m free!

Me: (heave)

Ugh: Are you OK?

Me: I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

The sad thing is that the majority of the tossers you meet here are British or Irish. If you were to put the same question to a Swede, for example, you’d get a simple, bullshit-free answer that included a company, a position and a marital status. However, ask some of the Irish or British people living here what they do and you’ll get fluff about “having interests here” and “looking into opportunities”, when what they really mean is “I’m a horny old devil who likes eyeing up women young enough to be my daughter”. I don’t know if it’s like this in every country, but Latvia really does seem to attract some creepy old codgers.

But for me, even more disturbing was that during this exchange, a Latvian woman (who’d clearly staked out her prey) was giving me the Death Stare. Seriously? You’re more than welcome to this ‘prize’. I’d take a Jānis over this dude any day of the week.

120 Responses to Giving expats a bad name

PPS please indulge me this one more post. I promise not to post again this month (unless you want me to). Since I’m on my favorite topic, I want to mention some reasons why I think Latvia is so completely awesome. (1) Awesome language. (2) Awesome folk music. (3) Awesome kids. (4) Awesome women. (5) Awesome pop music. (Including Soviet era groups such as Zodiak, perhaps the finest synth-based pop group ever). (6) OK I must admit the men are pretty awesome too. And freaking courageous. Just ask the Germans and/or Russians who tangled with them in the past. (7) Awesome flag. It sends shivers up my spine. (8) Awesome national anthem. (9) Awesome Riga. Cheers and thanks for indulging me.

P.S. just to follow up, there are certainly men, such as myself, who are interested only in faithful Latvian women who want a stable man and who want to raise Latvian kids in Latvia. I don’t want some young party girl and I am not looking for some kind of sexual adventure. I just want a peaceful and rather boring married life with lots of children. At the risk of repeating myself, I say again, we need more Latvians. LONG LIVE THE LATVIAN PEOPLE! Thanks and have a nice day. And no, I have not started drinking yet. I am very serious about this.

One of my famous relatives ( a son of President Tyler) married his second wife in his early seventies and had two sons, both of who are still alive last I knew. They are both in their eighties and have had wonderful lives. Of course my relative married a much younger woman. So I see nothing wrong with an older man (50 or even 60 something) marrying a Latvian woman in order to propagate the Latvian branch of our European race with a fine set of genes included. Of course many will disagree, but they are wrong. 😉 The main thing is we need more Latvians and even half-Latvians if the non-Latvian half is not too distant in the family tree sense, provided the children will be raised in Latvia as Latvians. Long live Latvia!!!!!

Keep your guns (or better yet typing fingers) forget the safe house? in your case I think all you did was extend the party for this guy (a little more phlegm, please). Stalkers (with a little “whiskey” in hand) have more sense then this guy. I went to a expat gathering here in Kazan once and watched them all jockeying for first position. Understood that wasn’t a horse I wanted to ride and never went back. I think I’m feeling a bit sorry for the Germans, an Irish Oak is coming.

You are so right there. I saw some disgusting fellahs while there. The worst ever in fact. Once I divorced, I got out of there fast! High death rates, low quality of men (LVs, RUSs and expats) was a tragic truth!
But probably the most creepy live (or lived) in Russia. I communicated with one who edited an expat publication which was the most sexist piece of crap I’ve ever seen – worse than a bikie magazine!

Thar’s what it’s like at Moscow’s Internations meetings. Or just expat gatherings. I am not sure what’s the issue – country of origin or country of presence. But it’s the reason I stopped going to those things.

You mean you’re not grateful to 60-year-olds for leering at you?!
To be fair, most of the people there are really nice and good company. I’ve had some great evenings and met some lovely people. Just the odd one or two creeps that spoil these things for the rest!

Looks like fun…I meet very few English people here so don’t know if they behave like tossers or not. Funnily enough, I do know a couple of Irish people and (apart from all the swearing and drinking) they are excellent representatives for Ireland 🙂

It’s times like these that you remember why you left the anglo-saxon world, isn’t it? I’ve not got an internations here (because I live in a village/small city) but I’m considering it when I move, to try and be outside the EFL bubble from the off in Lisbon.
I will remember to avoid the Brits and the sleazier of the Irish! 😉

“.. Latvia really does seem to attract some creepy old codgers.” Maybe the problem is that Latvian girls are interested in attraction old…?, because they are trying to make their lives better as they can. I know, it is really sad!
But your evening looks fab! I didn’t know that you are meeting each other in Latvia.

Yeah, I think there’s definitely an element of the women here encouraging them! And yes, it’s usually once a month – this month there were two though. That picture was taken in Cydonia in Bergs Bazars – nice place!

I wouldn’t be so sure those girls are Latvians. Such a stuff mostly happens in Riga where Latvians are minority (as well as in other big cities where situation with national distribution is pretty much the same).

Any old foreign creep in countryside would have no success. Only if they are about the same age.

i object! there are always a couple (or a dozen) or two of exclusions (which truely makes this rule a rule). i’ve seen enogh girls, trying to sell off their asses (literally!), and that had nothing to do with their ethnic identitiy – just with how much money the “other side” could offer (or seemed to be able to offer).

Ha ha ha, keep the posts coming on Monday mornings please.
I signed up to join the InterNations, but have never managed to attend a meeting. I keep getting e mails from them asking if I am still alive.

Maybe its time i went to one of the Inter Nations events! Been meaning to for over a year now…but somehow always managed to find something else to do instead. Really didn’t feel like meeting more expats 🙂 locals are cool and fun in SA.

Our is organized by a Lebanese man who is such a sweetheart I could die. But they are most frequently and consistently attended by an older Arab man who is in love with any non-Arab woman. He is actually quite nice, but goes for women half his age and ten times as attractive as him. Ugh, and this one dude who is player central and in love with one of my friends. And a British/Nigerian who breaks my heart. And an Italian man that my friend hooks up with twice a year like clockwork. There’s also a consistent Ukrainian woman who likes to talk to me about horoscopes. And so many woman who’re recently single. It’s like “break up with your foreign boyfriend, go to Internations and bitch about him to other recently single women.”

I don’t really go to them all that often anymore, but the older Arab man put me in charge of arranging a game night that still hasn’t happened. My bad…

I went to a few Internations meetings here in Brussels, but I didn’t like them at all… too posh, everybody dressed like they were at a fancy business evening.
Judging by the pictures it looks like a more relaxed environment

It was much worse in 2006 pre-crisis. There were actual real life sex tourists, not just the ones made up by the Latvian press. Guys who genuinely were here because they believed all the bull about Riga having a serious imbalance of young men and young guys and that Latvian women would be falling over themselves to date factory workers from Liverpool. Besides them, the now defunct De Lacey’s was full of old, fat, boring Irish guys talking about property investments. Things have definitely improved.

Considering that 90% of the foreign guys are working there as “English teachers” and often earning relatively big chunks of money simply based on their north-American/European origin plus sleeping around with local girls, it can easily make people full of themselves.

Not sure of the percentage but I’d say 90 is a bit high! Most of the English teachers I know have a local girlfriend or wife. And the other foreigners mainly own their own businesses or work for international companies. Yes, their salaries are probably higher than local salaries – but don’t make out that the local women don’t know that! 😉

Yeah, I’m always suspicious of the ones who can’t actually explain what the hell they’re doing here! They’re generally good fun though (the events that is) – I recommend giving it a go! Where do you live and where are you from?

1. You are giving too much credit to the Americans.
2. I am so jealous you have that opportunity. I want to go to an Internations event, but I would have to travel 3 hours.
3. I have met some amazing Irish in my travels. I am shocked that you weren’t describing an American.
4. Still jealous. I want to go to an Internations event. ..(Stamping feet throwing a fit!)

I met a lovely American diplomat at the last one – he had the same surname as my mother before she got married 😉 Seemingly the US Embassy here comes to a standstill whenever I publish a post 🙂 The Americans that I know here are generally great!

You never know what you’ve got til it’s gone…. then they will be stuck with leopard print and heels.Heaven help them! When are you leaving? I hope not soon. I look forward to your posts. you really make me laugh.

Yeah, the first Irish guy was lovely 😉 And he works with a very nice English guy. Also met a really nice Pole and Italian and American! And there were 2 girls who were lovely – Slovakian and French. It was a worthwhile outing!

Couchsurfing meetings are highly recommended! They usually have a nice mix of locals and visitors, and I have always found a few very interesting people there with whom I have subsequently stayed in contact. Especially helpful when you have just moved to a new city.

I haven’t had a chance to get to the Bergen InterNations get-togethers — too far away from where I live — but would love to for the reasons you write: it would be great to meet other countries’ expats, not just the fellow Americans I already know from the Americans in Bergen group. You had a mini-United Nations represented there!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sailaway from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain